Corrales said he was honored by the award. "I was absolutely surprised and delighted because I always expect the worst," he said.
Corrales, who got tenure last spring, applied for the Fulbright Scholar grant because he knew he would need it to finance his research. "Without tenure, I would have needed another job; with tenure, I need supplementary finance for my sabbatical," he said. Corrales received the requisite 20 percent of his salary plus additional funding to cover living expenses.
Corrales has a list of projects that he hopes to pursue, but he is particularly interested in studying the status of presidential elections in Latin American countries. Particularly, he hopes to research why both ex-presidents and total newcomers in Latin America are running for public office and often winning.
Corrales believes that there is something wrong with the fact that many ex-presidents with poor records and newcomers who have no public service records are successfully running for president. "I think it is a bizarre, but explicable phenomenon having to do with economic anxieties and the decay of political parties," he said.
Corrales also stressed the fact that he will not research just one topic, but rather hopes to see the interaction among a variety of topics. "I'll see how many I can accomplish and are viable," he said. "I am hoping to spend my time abroad to do research on a set of questions on the state of democracy and markets in the region."
In addition to conducting research, Corrales will lecture at the Institute for Higher Studies in Administration (IESA), which seizes opportunities to invite foreigners to lecture. "IESA is very open to inviting international scholars," said Corrales. "This openness to scholars from abroad is certainly a model worth replicating."
Corrales has special ties to the institute, which hosted him when he did field work for his dissertation. "I've always had good relations with this institute," he said. He added that he looks forward to the experience of teaching graduate students at the institute.
The Fulbright Scholar program seeks to build a mutual understanding between people of the U.S. and other countries and works well with the importance that Corrales' places on talking to students and scholars from around the world.